Repsol Honda Team’s Marc Marquez upped the pace as testing continued in Malaysia on Wednesday, while NGM Mobile Forward Racing’s Aleix Espargaro placed an Open specification bike inside the top five for the first time.

It’s often said that winning the Rolex 24 at Daytona can be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But winning it twice, in the same year, is a feat that had only happened twice before in the race’s 51-year history.

That was until last week when CORE autosport-prepared cars claimed victories in both the GT Le Mans and Prototype Challenge classes in the historic inaugural round of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

Scott Redding was pleased with his first day of this week’s MotoGP test, as the field gathered in Malaysia for the first time in 2014.

Englishman Redding steps up to the premier class with GO&FUN Honda Gresini, riding the all-new Honda RCV1000R customer bike under Open regulations. This differs from the RC213V of teammate Alvaro Bautista, whose own machine is competing under the Factory Option set of rules.

Bradley Smith of Great Britain and Monster Yamaha Tech 3 heads down a straight during testing in Sepang. (Photo: Getty Images)

Bradley Smith insists that race simulation runs are currently the top priority in preseason testing, predicting races will be “quite different” in MotoGP this year.

In 2014, Smith will contest a second full season with Monster Yamaha Tech3 as the field is split between either Factory Option or Open machines. Following the first day of testing at Sepang in Malaysia on Tuesday, Englishman Smith summed up events.

For 2014, Nicky Hayden is one of four riders to be piloting the all-new Honda RCV1000R customer bike. The 2006 World Champion continued to adapt to the machine as the Sepang Official MotoGP test started on Tuesday.

American Hayden completed Day 1 in 17th position as he continued his apprenticeship with the Drive M7 Aspar team.